I read your article, "She Knows Beans, Or Is Starting To" [Miriam's Garden by Miriam Rubin, Food & Flavor, July 15 and post-gazette.com/food] and have a possible reason why your beans aren't producing as much as expected. You mentioned that in the bean bed that you had previously planted sunflowers. Sunflowers are allelopathic (or phytotoxic) to other plants -- meaning that as part of their natural defense and competitiveness they produce chemicals, phenolic compounds, that affect the growth of other plants. So much so that sunflower extracts are often used to make herbicides. They can decrease germination, hinder the growth of plants, prevent them from growing at all, adversely affect yields, and/or sometimes lower their immunity and robustness, causing them to be more susceptible to disease and rot problems. I do not add the spent sunflowers and stalks to my compost for this reason because I use the compost on my vegetable beds.

This is not, however, a reason to ban sunflowers from the garden.

Sunflowers provide beauty, attract pollinators, and feed birds, all of which are great reasons to include them in a garden ecosystem. It's just that they need a little more care in bed planning, crop rotation and garden debris clean-up. I compost my spent sunflowers and stalks in a weedy area of my backyard that I am trying to get under control, so in that way the allelopathic nature of sunflowers is a benefit!

Years ago I read of a man who planted acres of sunflowers, collected the seed and burned the dried stalks in his wood-burning stove to heat his home all winter long.

KATE WAGLE HITMAR
Dormont

Summertime means making fast and easy foods so that my time is spent outside or with friends -- not in the kitchen. Here's one such recipe.

HELEN HORES
Ross

EASY COFFEE ICE CREAM TURTLE DESSERT WITH A LORNA DOONE CRUST

• 2 10-ounce packages Lorna Doone shortbread cookies, crushed
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 quart coffee ice cream
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• Caramel ice cream sauce
• 1 quart vanilla ice cream
• Hot fudge ice cream sauce
• Canned whipped cream

For the crust: Mix cookie crumbs, sugar and butter and line a springform pan. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes and cool completely. That's layer 1.

For layer 2: Spread onto the crust the softened quart of coffee ice cream.

For layer 3: Sprinkle caramel sauce and pecans to your liking.

For layer 4: Spread on softened quart of vanilla ice cream.

Freeze the cake, then release from spring pan and cut into slices.

Top with hot fudge and whipped cream and serve immediately.

Variation: You can also top with crushed Heath candy bars.

-- Helen Hores

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